When Grand Theft Childhood co-author Dr. Cheryl Olson first became active in generating videogame research, she said that she wasn’t prepared for how controversial the subject actually was.

In an interview with This Is My Joystick, Olson stated that as her research progressed, she felt “morally obligated to correct myths and misinformation that make parents worry needlessly, and may cause them to overlook more subtle but real problems.”

On the pro-gaming side, we all should be thankful for Olson’s sense of obligation. Her latest mass media appearance on CNN saw her inject a heavy dose of logic into the RapeLay debate. Olson commented on the panic that these types of reports attempt to induce:

To be fair, many older adults, including politicians, have never played video games. They may know only what they have heard others say about how terrible video games are, or they may have seen videos or screenshots of the most violent game content and assume all games are like that.

For people who are upset about social change, video games are an easy target to blame. I think that these attacks on video games will lessen over time, as young people who see such games as a normal part of life grow older and attain positions of social influence.

Olson told the interviewer that she personally prefers games with “stories or humor,” but recently picked up BioShock and Portal to play on her son’s computer. The Dr. and her 20-year old son, an avid PC gamer, take a co-op approach to playing games, as it allows Olson to "enjoy the story and graphics without being slowed down by my lack of skill.”

Queried on whether sex or violence might have more of an impact on young gamers, Olson replied:

There seems to be a European/American split on this issue. American parents tend to be very upset about any nudity in games, but more tolerant of violence (especially if it involves aliens or orcs). I personally would be more concerned about games featuring demeaning treatment of women (as in some Def Jam games, for example) or violence aimed at religious/ethnic/racial minorities, than exposure to minor nudity.

Comments

I think, because of things that have happened this year, that Dr Cheryl Olson is perhaps the BEST thing for both gamers and also parents of young gamers.

When our medium is attacked, there is always a person like Jack Thompson or a politician like Keith Vass, that tries to paint the picture of gamers to parents in a deeply disturbing way.

And then there is a Cheryl Olson...who comes onto the TV sets and she just is like...a clear headded woman who can calm everyone down and thus the media can't hype it up anymore and the politicians and people like Jack lose their momentum because of people like Dr Cheryl Olson.

If there were more people like her, our hobby would not have had these negative stigmas...

Also I love the way how when she was talking on the news about Rapelay, she turned the topic into something that it was normal for teenage or young adult boys to play these games...and just like with Grand Theft Auto it is mostly portrayed as the young male gamers who is into games like these but there are also a number of female gamers who also play games like GTA, and I am also willing to bet there is also a similar number of female gamers who play games like rapelay...but I am more talking about games like Absolute Obediance, Enzai and of course Animenundai that are Japanese visual novels that are more appealing to the female dating sim/visual novel genre.

Plus, Dr Cheryl Olson is perhaps the only person who has related things back to a time where books were being criticised for their violence and things like that, and I feel that we all must do that same sort of tactic when confronted by an anti-gamer who wants nothing more than to bully us in public...

And best thing is, she is talking from a parent who has taken the time to understand games too, so I feel that things are about to change slowly here thanks to people like her...if only she were making games I wonder what sort of ideas she would have in mind for the games industry if she were to work for a developer?

It's nice to see someone with a level and fair explanation of the current state of video games when the various news shows decide to try and create a sensationalist headline or story. The only problem is if she keeps logically and fairly explaining and de-escalating these situations they'll probably never have her back. News is less about news and more about trying the scare the **** out of people for good ratings and "mindshare".

On a side note I haven't found it yet, but it's got to be out there online somewhere. If not, someone needs to do a large historical write up of the (non) moral panic/outrages of the decades. In the late teens and early twenties wasn't Jazz music and clubs the moral dilemma created by the older generation, then comics and Rock N Roll destroying the youth, then in the late 70's it switched to Dungeons and Dragons and Punk music being the downfall of "morals" and the youth. Followed by "the rap", and computers that are taking our jobs. Now we have video games, "the internets", social media, and texting. I mean looking it over historically we're in an endless cycle of something new coming along that a certain percentage of the older generation just doesn't get, so they decide it's evil and ruining everything, natch Moral Panic!

So here's the plan to stop this stupid cycle, how do we create a moral outrage about moral outrages. That's right people, one moral outrage to end them all.

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ZippyDSMlee: .....win8 hates any left over hidden install partitions from other version of windows....only waste 5 hours finding that out...its ahrder than you think keeping up with 4 or 5 HDDS......03/03/2015 - 4:44am

Matthew Wilson: I am going to pax east, any games you guys want me to check out?03/02/2015 - 11:23pm

ZippyDSMlee: No one remembers the days of Cinemagic and Cynergy eh? :P, meh even MGS is getting to film like....03/02/2015 - 8:44pm

MechaTama31: I was about to get all defensive about liking Metal Gear Solid, but then I saw that he was talking about "cinematic" as a euphemism for "crappy framerate".03/02/2015 - 8:29pm

prh99: Just replace cinematic with the appropriate synonym for poo and you'll have gist of any press release.03/02/2015 - 5:34pm

Monte: Though from a business side, i would agree with the article. While it would be smarter for developers to slow down, you can't expect EA, Activision or ubisoft to do something like that. Nintnedo's gotta get the third party back.02/28/2015 - 4:36pm

Monte: Though it does also help that nintendo's more colorful style is a lot less reliant on graphics than more realistic games. Wind Waker is over 10 years old and still looks good for its age.02/28/2015 - 4:33pm

Monte: With the Wii, nintnedo had the right idea. Hold back on shiny graphics and focus on the gameplay experience. Unfortunatly everyone else keeps pushing for newer graphics and it matters less and less each generation. I can barely notice the difference02/28/2015 - 4:29pm

Monte: ON third party developers; i kinda think they should slow down to nintendo's pace. They bemoan the rising costs of AAA gaming, but then constantly push for the best graphics which is makes up a lot of those costs. Be easier to afford if they held back02/28/2015 - 4:27pm

Matthew Wilson: http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2015/02/28/the-world-is-nintendos-if-only-theyd-take-it/ I think this is a interesting op-ed, but yeah it kind of is stating the obvious.02/28/2015 - 2:52pm